Abstract
Three series of nanocrystalline phosphors based on ZnAl2O4 spinel co-doped with Cr3+, Er3+ and Yb3+ ions in the dopant concentration ratios 1:1:3, 1:1:5 and 1:1:7 were obtained by sol–gel citrate method. Unlike conventional high-temperature solid-state synthesis, the applied method makes it possible to obtain single-phase cubic spinel materials for all three series at a minimal annealing temperature of 700 °C. In this way, fine powders with an average grain size of 31–33 nm were obtained. The lattice parameters of the phosphors triply co-doped with Cr3+, Er3+ and Yb3+ ions are in the range of 8.094–8.087 Å, systematically higher than the corresponding values for single Cr-doped ZnAl2O4, thus proving incorporation of larger Er and Yb ions into the ZnAl2O4 spinel structure. Photoluminescence properties of ZnAl2O4:Cr,Er,Yb nanocrystalline phosphors were studied at the ambient conditions. The phosphors exhibit a characteristic photoluminescence related to d–d transitions in Cr3+ ions and up-conversion emission of Er3+ ions. The intensity of these emissions is dependent on the concentrations ratio of the activators and the annealing temperature.
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Acknowledgements
The work was funded by Grant no. 2020.02/0373 of the National Research Foundation of Ukraine titled “Crystalline phosphors' engineering for biomedical applications, energy saving lighting and contactless thermometry”. The results obtained by authors were partially presented as a poster on the 10th International Conference “Nanotechnologies and Nanomaterials” (NANO-2022), August 25-27, 2022, Lviv, Ukraine, and published in Abstract Book at http://www.iop.kiev.ua/~een/conference/nano2022/assets/files/nano22bookOfAbstracts.pdf.
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Hreb, V., Lutsyuk, I., Stadnik, V. et al. Sol–gel derived ZnAl2O4 nanopowders co-doped with Cr3+, Er3+ and Yb3+ ions. Appl Nanosci 13, 7267–7274 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-023-02899-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13204-023-02899-y